Last night I went to an advance screening of the movieTowelhead. The movie is directed and adapted by Alan Ball from the novel by Alicia Erian. The story is about a young Arab-American girl, coming of age during the time of the first Gulf War, in Texas.
The movie was pretty amazing. It was uncomfortable, funny, hopeful and disturbing at various times. I guess I shouldn’t be that surprised coming from Alan Ball, who didn’t shy away with uncomfortable topics in American Beauty or Six Feet Under. I was actually kinda bummed that I wasn’t able to stick around for the Q & A session after the screening (it was late).
Its going to be interesting when this film is actually released. From looking at the official website for the movie, it looks like they are going to be doing a bunch of screenings around the country before its wider release. Of course the title of the movie is going to be controversial. The film makers (and original author) address this a bit on the website, which I quote beneath the cut. I encourage ya’ll to see this movie when you can, its the best movie I’ve seen all summer.
What would you do if you suddenly received a box via mail, labeled “FRAGILE: Contains Peace”? How would you use it? Would you give it to someone else? Would you sell it? Would you just throw it away?
Such a box is exactly what painter Franck de Las Mercedes has been sending since May of 2006 to anyone who asks him, anywhere in the world, for free.
“The Priority Boxes” project is a public art series that seeks to provoke thought, to make people reconsider their ability to influence change, communicate through art and make art accessible to people from all walks of life.
It’s the summer of 1994 and Luke has just graduated from high school. He deals weed to make money. He likes his shrink’s step-daughter. He pays his shrink with weed. A twist on the classic coming of age movie.
I saw The Wackness at the Arclight last night. It definitely brought back some memories, as I am around the same age (graduated in 95, originally class of 94).
The soundtrack is great…definitely a reminder of the times…rap that’s pre- Biggie vs. Tupac.
In the movie Olivia (the step-daughter), tells Luke that he needs to wake up. Stop looking at only “the wackness” of life (the negative) and just focus on “the dopeness” (the positive), like she does.
I think its a good point…but we need to make sure not to be extremely in either direction. Yeah, its not healthy to focus just on the wackness…but likewise its not healthy to focus just on the dopeness. Both exist…and both need to be dealt with.
I watched My Blueberry Nights last night finally. It is Wong Kar-Wai’s first English language movie. The movie opened the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, but did not see a US release until April 4, 2008. Because this is LA, and we actually get the Limited Release movies right away, I didn’t make it to see it in the theaters before it was gone. So I had to wait until this past Tuesdays DVD release.
In the tradition of many of his other films, this is a story of love. Wong Kar-Wai describes it as “a story of a woman who takes the long route instead of the short one to meet up with the man she loves.” (from wikipedia)
The movie is still shot in the way of his earlier films, despite the break from his long-time cinematographer Christopher Doyle. Full of sensuous colors and saturated hues.
The movie got very mixed reviews during its theatrical release…but I enjoyed it. The story was a little disjointed at times (moreso than usual), but that may be more of a symptom of writing in a second language (even though he co-wrote with a native english speaker). Norah Jones did a decent job acting, for her first time. The story behind her casting is that Wong Kar-Wai had her specifically in mind for the role and had to convince her to do the role.
Here is the UK trailer (embedding was disabled for the US version):
I just saw this for the first time this past week. This was originally aired on BET show The 5ive, and I believe (from the CNN spots below) has been aired on the show 106 & Park, a daily top-10 rap video countdown. The song, by poet Bomani Armah, aka D’Mite or notarapper, is a parody/satire of the state of the “urban” black culture. Not surprisingly, people didn’t get it:
Part 1 (From CNN)
Part 2 (From CNN)
I love in the second part of the interview, that the guy doesn’t see how silly his complaints about this animated short are. He keeps trying to make the video out as a PSA, removing it from the context where it was shown. Completely ignoring the fact that it was shown on a show (and channel) that regularly feature music videos that glorify violence and drugs, while at the same time objectifing women.
When accused by the CNN host of being a provocateur, Bomani responds wonderfully: “I didn’t think the idea of reading and hygiene and all these things was controversial”
Went and caught Doc Martin at sublevel (His monthly underground party) last Saturday night/Sunday Morning. Had a great time dancing until almost 4am with my friends Charlie and DJ Drue.
Here’s a little taste from the March 29th party at 6:30am (I didn’t make it to that one):
I do love being so close to the beach. I spent the afternoon on Saturday with a good friend at Newport Beach. We hung out there for a couple of hours before we headed up to Huntington Beach to check out a show by William F Gibbs. It was nice to just hang out and just be.Friday night I went to a hookah cafe and saw the movie Teeth with a different friend. The movie was pretty ridiculous (billed itself as a horror comedy).
I’m in the home stretch at work. My last big event is tomorrow night and things are pretty much all in order for it. It’ll be nice not to have that lingering over me anymore.
I haven’t been to church (outside of work) for a month now. I was planning on going last weekend…but then woke up Sunday morning not feeling well, so I stayed in bed all day. I think I’ll go this Sunday. Or go hiking.
I’m not having much luck in my first choice of “things to do after I’m done at Canterbury.” The craigslist job board for Santa Rosa isn’t providing many opportunities to apply for jobs. So I’m left with also figuring out what Plan B really is. Do I stay in Los Angeles, which often sucks away my will, and is so expensive, just because its the easiest option. Do I look to move back to Oregon, even though I have no idea on how I’d pay to move my stuff back up there? Is there some other place I should think about going?
Really, like Ray sings above, the whole process has left me feeling kind of empty. Change is coming and I need to work on making sure its good. As one of my friends pointed out last weekend in Salt Lake…I sure thought I’d have more things figured out by the time I was this age than I do.
I watched My Blueberry Nights last night finally. It is Wong Kar-Wai’s first English language movie. The movie opened the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, but did not see a US release until April 4, 2008. Because this is LA, and we actually get the Limited Release movies right away, I didn’t make it to see it in the theaters before it was gone. So I had to wait until this past Tuesdays DVD release.
